Representative fossils of three extant lanternfish (Myctophidae) genera (Bolinichthys, Lampanyctus, and Myctophum) from the collections of Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County were identified, based on a combination of osteological and photophore characters. These specimens come from the upper Miocene Modelo Formation (Mohnian-Delmontian) of California, and represent the first skeletal records of Bolinichthys (otherwise identified as otoliths from the Late Miocene of Italy) and Myctophum body fossils in North America, and confirm that both modern myctophid subfamilies exhibited a cosmopolitan distribution by the late Miocene.
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1 July 2013
Lanternfish (Teleostei, Myctophiformes, Myctophidae) Body Fossils from the Modelo Formation (Upper Miocene) of Los Angeles County, California
John S. S. Denton
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Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
Vol. 33 • No. 4
July 2013
Vol. 33 • No. 4
July 2013